Article of the Week - Jules Verne

Jules Verne
Besides Agatha Christie, he is the most
translated author in the history of literature

Jules Gabriel Verne (February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905) was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre.

He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before air travel and practical submarines were invented, and before practical means of space travel had been devised. He is the second most translated author in the world (after Agatha Christie). Some of his books have also been made into live-action and animated films and television shows. Verne is often referred to as the "Father of Science Fiction", a title sometimes shared with Hugo Gernsback and H. G. Wells.

On March 9, 1886, as Verne was coming home, his twenty-five-year-old nephew, Gaston, shot him with a gun. One bullet missed, but the second entered Verne's left leg, giving him a limp that would not be cured. The incident was hushed up by the media, and Gaston spent the rest of his life in an asylum.

Also a restaurant built into the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is named Le Jules Verne Restaurant.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jules Verne"